Thunderstorm
by stella brillare
Summary: Oneshot. Castle goes for a walk in a thunderstorm after yet another argument with Meredith.


**Note that this was written for the "variation of a theme" assignment in my English Class, this is not the original direction I had intended this to go as I was writing it, but after reading it over a second time, I decided that my original idea wouldn't be a good idea for an English assignment.**

**My original take on the prompt "It had been raining for a week" will be posted in the next few days, if you're interested.  
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><p>It had been raining for a week. The sound of thunder, the flashes of lightning, the drips of rain off the gutter, it wasn't unusual, and frankly, it cleared his mind of all the trouble, all the drama, all the misunderstandings, everything that was causing him stress. He liked to just stare out the window at the rain pounding down on top of the cabs and sidewalks of New York. Sometimes he'd even pull Alexis up by his side and they would stare out the window of his office, the soundtrack of a Disney movie playing faintly in the background.<p>

But today, today was different. Today he wanted to face the rain. Feel it run down his back as it seeps through his shirt, the cold drops on his face. He wanted a change. He needed a change. Some new idea was bound to come along, it just had to. So, he convinced his mother to watch the small, four year old girl who was still asleep in her yellow themed room, snuggled up with the bear that her Dad bought her in he baby blue pajamas. Rick loved his daughter more than anything in the world, and the thought of her being so peaceful always brought a smile to his face.

He pulled on the grey jacket that was hanging on the back of the stool, taking one last sip of his coffee before tossing the plastic to-go cup in the sink on his way out of the kitchen, grabbing the key to the loft before he walked out of the door.

As he steps onto the cement sidewalk, a sudden chill runs through his veins, and within minutes he can feel the cold seeping through his sleeves. The rain drops are falling fast, they're big. He can tell by the slight pain that he feels whenever one hits his arm. He should turn back, he shouldn't be walking out in this storm, in just a small jacket. He'll get sick, and he just can't do that. He's got a daughter to take care of. But he can't bring himself to it.

Every restaurant, coffee shop, store, every building in general reminds him of her. They'd had coffee at that shop on their second date, she bought a shirt there, that's the restaurant they went to when she was pregnant with Alexis. All of them just kept running through his mind, he knows that they should make him upset, make him want to let the tears fall from his eyes, because they're reminders of them back when they were happy, when there was no job offers, no staying out late at night instead of staying in with him and Alexis, but instead they just make him angry. He doesn't understand how he let this happen. He should have been more demanding, more up front. He shouldn't have let her go out, he should have done something. But he didn't want to become the over protective husband.

It takes him a while to come to the conclusion that this isn't his fault, he knew that the love between them had been gone since she was seven months pregnant. But he tried, for Alexis. He knew what it was like to be raised with only one parent, so he braved through it, for her. Everything he did was for his daughter, whereas anything Meridith did was for her gain, despite what she tried to convince everyone else.

As he walked back into his building, walking back up the stairs so that he wouldn't have to wait for the elevator, because all he wanted to do was go and curl up on the couch with his daughter watching Cinderella for the hundredth time. In his mind, no matter what happened with Meredith, the only thing that mattered was his daughter. He would do anything for her. Always.

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><p><strong>I broke the rules, the story wasn't supposed to be more than five hundred words. Whatever, though. I'm sure my teacher won't complain, right?<strong>


End file.
